Ohio

In search of jabberwocky worlds

The summer we drove over the border into Kentucky, I waited for the grass

to turn suddenly blue, as if there were places in the world

where you could cross into extraordinary. It was the month of fireflies,

the month when the sun set late and our apartment building

rose higher than any home I had known. In the car after dark, I pretended to speak

a different language, exotic and untranslatable, babbling jabberwocky words

until my parents hushed me. Even then I wanted unreachable things.

Happiness tethered to the moon’s cloud mane as my mind raced toward magic —

ignoring life’s bit and gripping any illusion that would take me

all the way to impossible.

Thanks to Rochelle Silva for posting the prompt below and for Lucy the Eggcademic, whose poem inspired me to write about it.

Prompt: Childhood dreams (Do you remember your childhood dreams? Are you following what you dreamed of? Or did you discover something much better?)

Read Rachelle’s poem below:

And Lucy’s response: